Canning Without a Pressure Canner

Original post by Alaska Rose on A.P. N.

First, a disclaimer. This is not an approved method for canning. This is for survival knowledge only.

If you are in a survival situation and don’t have a pressure canner available but need to can some meat or vegetables to keep them from spoiling, you can do it in boiling water bath, but it isn’t easy and takes hours. Meat and vegetables need about 4 hours in a boiling water bath, not just a hot water bath. You have to put a heavy cloth or a rack in bottom of the container to keep the jars from touching the bottom, or they break. The timing starts after the water reaches a full rolling boil and keep the water boiling hard to the top of the lids, the whole time. There must be another kettle of water boiling to add water if the level gets below the lids. Do NOT let the water stop boiling the whole time or restart timing the batch. This is definitely not recommended and you have to keep everything scrupulously clean while preparing the contents of the jars and filling the sterilized jars.

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